The Encounter Between Champa and Persia: Research on the Impact of West-Asiatic Cosmology in Southeast Asia

The Encounter Between Champa and Persia: Research on the Impact of West-Asiatic Cosmology in Southeast Asia

The Encounter between Champa and Persia: Research on The Impact of West-Asiatic Cosmology in Southeast Asia S. SETUDEH-NEJAD he study of comparative civilizations, with focus on the culture of the Cham, a seafaring T people of Sa Huynh origin (in Central Vietnam), has attracted much attention in field surveys. My examination of the 'Cham problem' is based on studies which were initiated during the period of my affiliation with the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Srninakharinwirot Univer- sity at the Prasarnmit Campus, under the impact of Ajarn Plubplung Kongchana's lecture on Champa at the Siam Society on July 16th, 1995, and a period of field research in Vietnam and Cambodia during 1996. It is probable that reform-based manifesta- tions of the famed reign of Sasanian King Khosrow Anushirwan found firm roots in the legendary, and thus, literary heritage of the Champans, who as a Malay-speaking people in Vietnam retained numerous concepts in their traditions together with other peoples of the peninsular regions of Southeast Asia, where traditions for fairness and 'justice' are identifi- able with the Malay sphere traditions regarding a legendary 'just prince' in whose image, Pan- Map: showing the historic spots in Champa and Vietnam, Asian movements evolved in Southeast Asia in Cochinchina and the Cambodian zone, all of which were order to pursue socio-economoc reforms. under the symbolic sphere of 'Funan' and her extensive kinship courts of Cosmic Kingship' in the direction of the Malay Peninsula, where the sea trades of the 'Posse' became felt as of the 4th century AD Persian Elements in the Cultural Heritage of Cham-Viet Peoples Our chief argument regarding a Persian- Cham of southern Vietnam (1); (b) Western based inspiration and heritage for Malay- scholarship regarding the "Book of Anushirvan", speaking peoples' models for 'just rule' and a cosmic text attributed to Cham compilation, transmission of Zoroastrianism, thus, inclusion of derived from Persian-based metamorphosis; and cosmological concepts from Sasanid Iran into (c) recent studies which indicate the impact of Champa is based on several factors: (a) An oral Sasanid Persia in Vietnamese territory (2). As tradition by the 'Orang Bani', or the Islamicised Schafer has explained, among the Champan SPAFA Journal Vol. 10 No. 3 5 enclaves scattered in various reached Guangzhou, a port in east Asian kingdoms' ports. In areas of Vietnam, there are Southern China, in the city of China proper, as gathered data some in the villages of Binh "Canton" (8), and that by 748 seems to suggest, historical Thuan in southern Vietnam AD, Hainan, an island in the texts and family records of Chi- who identify themselves as China Sea had Persian and nese Muslims in Guangzhou, 'Orang Bani' (3), a term which Arab merchant communities, Xiamen, and Quangzhou may denotes the Islamic faith, and whose movements penetrated indicate that the propagation kin-Malay affiliation among northerly port-towns of China as and popularization of Islam the Cham ethnicity (4). These well (9). in China from the seventh to southern Vietnamese Muslim According to Cady, from the fourteenth centuries AD., Chams hold on to a tradition re- AD 758 onward, and "for a gen- was via families who were garding their ancestry, claiming eration thereafter", West-Asian descendants of Central-Asian, that their first king was named traders from Arabia and Persia Mongolian, Arab, and Persian "Noursavan", or 'Nourshavan', used Tonkin as a trading traders who were married to a name which, as Schafer centre of maritime activities Chinese wives. Their popula- has clarified, is the Champan (10). Ships carrying goods and tion today is over ten million version for 'Anushirwan the passengers travelled in the who still profess the Muslim Just' of Sasanid Persia (5). waterways of Cham-Viet king- faith, and are called 'Hui', Moreover, French schol- doms. These activities were together with some 33,000 arly efforts have indicated recorded in a Chinese text Persian-speaking Tajik nomads another association between the 'Chiu T'ang-shu', a historical who are dwellers in the Pamir Sasanians and Cham culture, work which has provided some Mountains in Xinjiang (12). being the so-called "Book of details on a Southeast Asian Consequently, trade and Anushirvan", a Cham work on state known by its Sinicized long-time residence via inter- cosmology, which Schafer name as P'an P'an, whose marriage resulted in the preser- pointed out as "sacred" to the location was proximate to the vation of loyally to West and Champan people (6). coast of Thailand: "P'an P'an Central Asian husbands, and We must primarily con- lies to the southwest of Lin-i these ethno-cultural kinships sider a tentative argument [Champa] in a corner of the helped to introduce Islamic that Cham people's loyally to an sea ... One can reach it by boat concepts and traditions which oral tradition involving Persia from Chiao-chou [Tonkin] in were indigenous in West and suggests that the history of forty days" (11). Thus, there Central Asia, but Islamicised Champa's Islamization is prob- is ample literary evidence to (Zoroastrians were converted ably related to the appearance indicate that Muslim trading into Islam and a fusion of ideas of West-Asian Muslim enclaves ships could have reached Cham- under the name 'Persian' in- which were established in Cham- pan harbours from Tonkin or cluded Islamic and Southeast Viet homelands between the Chinese ports to establish Asian notions). Such trends seventh and eighth centuries settlements, and Muslim inter- probably persisted among the AD, at a time when the harbours marriage with the Far Eastern seafaring people of Vietnam in of Tonkin were reportedly a people resulted in the spread Champan ports, where the terminus for the overseas trade of Islam in Southeast Asia. 'Orang Bani' as a Islamicized of Arabian and Persian ship Indeed, inter-marriage group are probably a symbol merchants (7). In this regard, was the institution or the basis of inter-marriage with West- we know that as early as AD 611 upon which Islamization found Asian residents in Tonkin and to 626, Islamic missions had momentum in China and South- Cham harbours. The discovery 6 SPAFA Journal Vol. 10 No. 3 of inscriptions in Southern luxury of this royal court, sug- by Mazdean cosmology, led to Vietnam, depicting Kufic scripts gesting that its magnificence the spread of the name and dated from the latter half of was "unsurpassed by that of achievements of Khosrow the eleventh century AD (13), any dynasty in world's history" Anushirwan of "The Immortal suggests that Islamic enclaves (16). Soul", whose fame as 'Anushir- existed in Vietnam in earlier In the Era of Khosrow wan the Just' became known in times, but when we consider Anushirwan, Persia was a Zoro- the East and West, especially in the 'Orang Bani' and their oral astrian kingdom, and Iranian the East where the ideal for tradition on 'Nour-shavan', their cosmology centred on Zoroas- kingly charisma relied on first king, it is in retrospect a trian-derived interpretations of strength and justice (19). reflection of a pre-Islamic en- the official faith, 'Mazdaizm'. It is likely that in the days counter of Champa with Sasanid The founder of this ancient of maritime trade between the Persia. faith was Zarathushtra, whose Persian Gulf and the Arabian birthdate, as Mary Boyce Sea in the direction of the Indian suggests, is identifiable with Ocean and farther East, the oral The Personage of BC 1400 to BC 1200 when Irani- traditions for a 'just king' who Anushirwan And ans were first experiencing had brought about agricultural Sasanian Cosmology the impact of their Bronze Age prosperity for his subjects The most celebrated mon- (17). spread across the Malay Penin- arch of Persia in the Sasanian Under the Sasanian dy- sula, where its cosmology was Period (AD 226- 651) was nasty, the Mazdean clergy re- retained in the literary heritage Khosrow Anushirwan (r.AD formed the strict ethical dualism of Malay-speaking peoples 531-579), whose age marked of prophet Zarathushtra's faith in the 'Sejara Melayu', or The the zenith of Persian culture, into a philosophical format Malay Annals', in which a direct symbolizing the 'Golden Age' in the 'Mazdean context', an reference to 'Nushirwan Adil' of Iranian civilization (14). 'official' doctrine in Sasanid can be interpreted as the Anushirwan conducted socio- Iran, which Hourani has clari- inclusion of a Sasanian ethical economic reforms, and sup- fied as being centred on 'King- doctrine in the cosmology of ported agricultural projects; ship', and Mazdaizm is said to Malay dynastic tradition; in that benefitted farmers. This have "supported the power of an Islamicised version, it is Sasanian King also built univer- the ruler regarded as a 'just identifiable with Champan sities, and encouraged and king', who preserved harmony derivation of Persian cosmic promoted arts and international between the different classes concepts in their "Book of sciences. Anushirwan's court of society" (18). Being a learned Anushirvan" (20). In this was the meeting place of King, Anushirwan's ideal was regard, we know that contem- scholars, and especially philoso- to popularise his reign via most porary dynastic traditions of phers from Greece and India tolerant attitudes toward his the Sultans of Malaysia, in and the Roman world, whose subjects, so that every citizen particular the genealogical polemics were famed as 'Con- would have the right to call upon records of the royal house of ference of Philosophers'. As him directly at his court, when Perak, attest to preserved oral such, the fame of this Persian deprived of a fair measure of traditions that combine refer- King had reached various justice. ences to ancestral kinship that parts of the East and the West Thus, this liberal policy is identified with Persia as early (15).

View Full Text

Details

  • File Type
    pdf
  • Upload Time
    -
  • Content Languages
    English
  • Upload User
    Anonymous/Not logged-in
  • File Pages
    15 Page
  • File Size
    -

Download

Channel Download Status
Express Download Enable

Copyright

We respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of all users. All uploaded documents are either original works of the uploader or authorized works of the rightful owners.

  • Not to be reproduced or distributed without explicit permission.
  • Not used for commercial purposes outside of approved use cases.
  • Not used to infringe on the rights of the original creators.
  • If you believe any content infringes your copyright, please contact us immediately.

Support

For help with questions, suggestions, or problems, please contact us